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Does Your Wine Need Viagra?

By Eric Asimov April 25, 2008 5:46 pmApril 25, 2008 5:46 pm

Oak barrels are expensive to make and to ship. (Photo: Martin Bernetti/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images)

I’ve long contended that American winemakers cede the inexpensive wine market to international competitors because instead of making really good inexpensive wines, using appropriate grapes and methods, they make imitation expensive wines, which taste like imitations. One need look no further than the April issue of Wines & Vines, a publication directed at the wine industry.

Wines & Vines is always a trove of interesting articles and technical information, often written in the shorthand language of the wine industry. In the April issue, Wines & Vines focused on oak alternatives, the myriad staves, chips, powders, blocks, spirals, etc. that the wine industry uses instead of real oak barrels.

Why oak alternatives? Only one reason: They offer the flavor of new oak, without nearly the expense or the time involved in aging wine in real oak barrels. For that matter, they offer oak flavor without the other qualities that come from aging in barrels, namely the subtle oxygenation, which can greatly enhance the texture of a wine. I think oak barrels are highly important to making fine wine but flavor from new oak is the attribute I like least.

New oak barrels, particularly from France, are very expensive, especially given the exchange rate, so one alternative is to keep reusing the barrels. Ah, but that would diminish the flavor elements, which are stronger in new oak, so many wine producers don’t want to do that, nor do they want to pay the labor costs of keeping those barrels scrupulously clean and maintaining them.

One article, “Viagra for Barrels’’ by Paul Franson, suggested that these costs are getting so high that boutique wineries are now turning to oak alternatives, which they employ in conjunction with already used barrels, hence getting at far less cost the flavor of new oak along with the other qualities inherent in barrel aging or fermentation. I found two paragraphs of the article particularly noteworthy:

“Oak powder or flour, and small chips and small-cut blocks or beans are most appropriate during fermentation. Lightly toasted or even untoasted, they add tannin structure from the oak, while increasing perceived mouthfeel and softness due to heightened polymerization of grape and oak tannins. They also contribute a sense of sweetness from the vanillin in the wood, and can enhance the fruit character in the wine.

“In some cases, these forms of oak provide a function impractical with barrels, including adding oak to red wine fermentation. The oak helps stabilize color in red wines.’’

There you have, in a nutshell, much that is wrong with too many American wines. Increased softness, sweetness, vanilla flavor, enhanced fruitiness, stabilized color (which in this context means really dark) — just the qualities that I don’t look for in a wine.

This is formulaic winemaking, perhaps understandable in a large-scale operation where sameness is a virtue and distinctive qualities a flaw, but not in small producers. Frankly, these are the sorts of wines I try to protect myself from.

Luckily, we still have in the American wine industry producers who see wine as an agricultural product, who embrace the vagaries of each vintage and don’t try to impose onto the wine their notion of what the public wants. But the inexpensive end of the industry is dominated by big producers who do practice this industrial style of winemaking. It’s different in Europe where small winemakers still exist who take pride in what they do even if it does not receive the same sort of attention and status as top Bordeaux and Burgundies. All sorts of good, distinctive values can be found in French country wines, to say nothing of the Loire and Beaujolais, as well as in Italian wines, Spanish wines and increasingly wines from the Balkans and Eastern Europe.

Partly this is because these producers have long traditions. But it’s also because European laws, which Americans are wont to sneer at as old-fashioned and restrictive, protect these traditions. And it says something that, even with the terrible exchange rate, the best wine values are still from Europe, not the United States.

Now, obviously the European wine industry has plenty of its own problems. But one thing I’d hate to see is the wholesale relaxation of European appellation laws and the widespread use of oak alternatives and techniques that are now so common elsewhere in the world. Unless, of course, you disagree that there’s quite enough, soft, sweet, vanilla, fruity wine already.

Excellent article, Eric! (Sorry, but I think this should have gone in the print edition on Wed., but then, we wouldn’t get to comment.)

Your first paragraph really hits home. Why must cab or pinot or chardonnay be grown everywhere? It just nets us, as you say, “imitation expensive wines, which taste like imitations”. It seems like 3/4 of California wineries make at least one wine from most of the popular varieties, rather than focusing on the right grape or two. (And it’s not just California doing this.)

Throwing oak chips into fermenting wine carries over a long-standing practice of adding wood to fermenting beverages. Budweiser, one of the best-selling beers in America, proudly displays “Beechwood Aged” on its label. That phrase arose from the use at the Busch brewery years ago of beechwood brewing tanks. But, wooden tanks are no longer used. So, Busch, I’m told, just throws a few slats of beechwood into the fermenting beer, thus allowing continued use of the phrase on its current labels. Most back labels of American wines proudly record use of wooden barrels, if that is the wineries practice. We should all read the back label!

Bravo, Eric. The wine additives (“oak powder”?) are something I suspected at more paranoid moments, and now I see they are for real.

The flavored wines of California remind me of flavored coffees: all “toasted nut” and “pumpkin spice” and “oaky vanilla” or “jammy raspberry” but, alas, rarely “carefully harvested, sorted, and fermented grapes.” Even the better offerings (Insignia, for example) taste like a fruit cake. Delicious, maybe, but serve them for dessert. Who wants a big swig of over-potent clovey vanilla-infused cherry juice with a steak?

Shouldn’t coffee taste like coffee and wine taste like wine?

For the price of a middle-of-the-road flavor-hypertrophied vintage-indifferent vanilla-laced California wine one can have a Bordeaux cru bourgeois, a Mercurey or a Santenay, two (or even three) Faugères or Cassis or Quincy or Tavel, not to mention Côtes du Rhône or cru Beaujolais…the list goes on and on, even with the current exchange rate. These wines (with exceptions) are delicious, inexpensive, full of character that changes yearly, and, most importanly, taste like wine, not a burnt linzer torte.

The problem is deeper then just save money, in the US the people are scared of experiences. Americans travel abroad and go eat to McDonald and get the coffee from Starbuck. It look like that the American taste prefer to lower the quality standards to favor consistency. Last night I was having dinner with an American friend that travels a lot for work and she told me exactly that, describing dinners she had in 3 stars French restaurant where some guest would not try anything and left the table to seek burgers. The problem is cultural connected probably to the “the birthright to happiness” philosophy, more then the quest for it, and the immediate satisfaction requirement which feed the surrogate industry; you cannot afford an expensive Bordeaux? No problem I will build one for you at $ 4.
That industry is actually strong in Europe as well just think of Constellation the biggest producer of junk wine in the world, they lobbied in conjunction with American wineries like Gallo and Mondavi, to allow the use of wood chips and water as part of winemaking process. They actually succeeded; last year the EU passed a law in favor of wood chips and France was the first country that align with the European directive.
Buona Bevuta a Tutti//www.de-vino.com//www.de-vino.blogspot.com

As author of the complementing article to the one that is cited I thought I’d comment. For one, I agree with your sentiment as regards the flavoring of wines and using oak alternatives for this end. And there is no doubt this is a large reason why the majority of the producers are using it. However to focus only on this disguises the fact that alternatives (which I actually have never used) can do things to wines other than simple flavoring of sweet spice and vanilla. There is more and more evidence that the “biomass” (yeast/bactiera) interact with oak compounds and do things that they would otherwise not do without the oak. That is all to say that with prices and the dollar where they are, using oak staves, e.g., in a stainless fermenter to produce a nice quaffing Chardonnay under $20 seems perfectly reasonable and beneficial to the consumer. And while this could be achieved with older barrels, even that can increase costs in terms of space/labor. And not to ignore your oxygenation comment, I will only say that tightly bunged barrels do not breath as much as people generally think. Topping and racking are really what contribute to introducing air. Therefore if you used staves in a tank and racked the wine every couple of months you could expect a very similar amount of oxygen introduction to the wine as aging the wine in a nuetral oak barrel. Just my two cents.//www.vinesnwines.org

OUCH! This article is like hitting a sore over and over again. Maybe if it hurts enough, they’ll wake up out there in Cali and rediscover some of the very good things they’ve lost.

Wonderful comments all around…Jim T’s struck a chord — I know some people who’ve done the same as him — and Gabrio’s got a good insight into our national fear of new things, at least in terms of what we put in our mouths.

But all this unanimity is making me nervous. When is someone going to tell us all we’re full of wood chips? I feel like a wine rumble.

I take issue with the notion that ‘oak alternative’ are used ONLY to impart oak flavors and aromas to wine. I believe that most of these products are used for this purpose but certainly not all.
I have used oak chips, at very low rates in Pinot Noir fermentations, for the purposes of reducing green characters in wines. I have enjoyed greats sucess doing so. The overall oak impact is quite low but the effects on the ‘green’ characters is impressive.
For the record theses wines are then aged in oak, and again the oak impact is comparable to those that do not see oak chips. Also the wines are hardly made in large quantities ( our vineyard produces about 3000 cases of wine ) and are by no means cheap ( $35-$70 ).
I fear oak products are being villanized by the wine press erranously, they are a valuable tool to winemakers. They are always used in an attempt to make a wine better, weather it is to ‘season’ an inexpensive wine aged in steel tanks or thrown into a fermentor of Pommard Clone Pinot Noir destined for a reserve bottling.

Hmm, Interesting article and very interesting comments. As for Mr. Tosti, though your comments are usually appreciated, please do not generalize about Americans and “American taste,” it is ugly and untrue. You are reading this on an American blog written by and for Americans, so obviously your theory has some holes. Also, last time I was in Italy, I was in the Veneto and I remember the locals drinking Argentinian Malbec almost exclusively (in terms of red wine), and those were not exactly local wines and not exactly subtle.

I personally don’t think that the phenomenon described here is “Cultural.” I think that it is market driven. Most Americans are still learning about wine, discovering what they like and why, etc. And learning about wine is a difficult process these days, what with all the snobbery and contradictory information and intimidation offered by the mainstream wine press (“Wine Spectator” and the like differ little from “Cigar Afficionado” and other crappy lifestyle magazines). We generally buy what is locally available, and see what we like.

Personally, I think that if the industry had a bit more faith in the American consumer, and actually offered them decent wine instead of the swill readily available, then I think that people would embrace it and drink it.

It is not easy to find cru beaujolais, non-mass produced rhone wines and all the other wonderful wines mentioned. I recently moved from Northern California to San Diego and had to give up a great wine store. Now, the most sophisticated wine store within 30 miles is Trader Joes. The European wines there taste “off” generally, and the American wines are usually what this article is about (or very expensive). And this is still California!

Occasionally, I will bring a good bottle of something unique to a gathering of friends who are not “wine people.” Almost invariably, individuals notice and enjoy a bottle of wine that stands out from the crowd. Most mass market wine tastes the same and gets a bit boring. The problem is access.

Where I live (Montreal) is a sea of French wine, but I get to Napa and Sonoma annually for a visit. Your comments are interesting, because I daily taste this contrast. I find this artificial oak issue particularly noticeable in the pinot noirs. But I think what surpised me the most in California was the “Hang time” boasting – I hardly met a winemaker who wasn’t bragging about how much longer they left the grapes on the vine…best climate in the world, and they just want more.

We “flavor” our wines here in Europe too! Seriously wine is flavored everywhere and the romantic notion that we do it less over here is silly. We may have laws to protect against it, but we also know that looking the other way is time honored tradition when it comes to wine making. Plenty of small and large winemakers here use oak in creative ways, and color their wines with some purchased Garnacha Tintorerra, that never shows on the label.

As the author of the original article about oak alternatives in Wines & Vines, I should point out that as is typical in a trade magazine, I was reporting, not stating my opinion.

I personally hate oaky wines and am delighted that many California producers, particualry of Chardonnay, are toning the oak back significantly.

Readers seriously interested in wine grape growing and winemaking might note that they can see many of the articles published in Wines & Vines as well as daily wine news stories at //www.winesandvines.com and similar material from Wine Business Monthly at //www.winebusiness.com.

My mission in wine and my goal for the consumer is to feature the wines from around the world that you mention in the first paragraph of this amazing post(of which I believe should go straight to print). In my USA section of the shop it was hard to balance price to quality when stocking the initial inventory. Other sections-France, Spain, Uruguay, Portugal-were very fun and exciting to taste and bring in. There was an overwhelming amount of, “really good inexpensive wines, using appropriate grapes and methods,” From all over the globe save for North America. I am happy with what we came up with but the true values-which is what our shop is all about-lie in the surrounding shelves. In the most recent issue of Wine And Spirits Magazine there is a great article about the fringe-thirty-something-wine producers in Cali making wine in low rent warehouses while maintaining cellar-rat jobs to pay the rent of the space and the equipment. I am currently looking to try these wines if they are available in NYC but what was cool about the article is that they are doing it right in a world of,”formulaic wine-making,”in a large-scale operation where sameness is a virtue and distinctive qualities a flaw.” I don’t think that these bottles are necessarily the most valued wines but I believe this a great start towards a new generation of winemakers that are tired of the current state of affairs.

The problem with America in general shows is that work has now only become a way to make money and not a source of pride. People have forgotten the integrity of creating quality for the sake of making something cheaper and faster. Unfortunately, the government doesn’t support the small wineries who pour their love and their soul into their wine because, it doesn’t make a profit.

Eric, Wonderful post. The art of making wine is what distinguishes the industry as a whole. Although, according to your last posting, some people believe price and the beauty of a wine are completely arbitrary. Price is sometimes not a determining factor in the quality of wine, but it is a reflection of the work and the vision of the winemaker. Again, good post. And now for some good California chard with lots of oak!:)

Sadly due to the extreme pressure for French wines to be more competitive on the world market, the use of oak chips (though not powder)was authorized last year to bring France in line with the European Union regulations. The INAO immediately moved to prohibit the use of wood chips, but did authorize wineries to experiment through “trials”, we’ll see what that leads to. So, wood chips are indeed being used here for the Vin de Pays and Vin de Table categories. Hopefully the INAO will hold their position, but American practices/customs often have a tendency to creep into French culture, usually not for the better.

I was reading the website site suggested in this post and came across something pretty cool that may be evidence that things may be looking up in the future. Cornell University has announced that in the fall of 2008 they will have a fully functional winery along with a oenology major. The article is a little hazy about the grapes being grown (there is mention of pinot noir but then it also talks about regional grapes. Does this mean vitis labrusca or regionally engineered vitis vinifera?) but this is good news showing that there is interest enough in the younger generation that there was a major created for it. And maybe these are the new approaches to wine that may dampen the consellations and Bollas out there.

By the way I think, “Mr. Tosti,” is correct in his argument towards Americans need for consistency. I was in Rome marveling at the Pantheon; one of the most beautiful pieces of architecture in ancient history and as I turned to take in the surroundings the music in my head came to a screeching halt as if someone had abruptly pushed the needle off the phono as it played(Stravinsky’s Apollon Musagète Variation d’Apollon – Lento. It’s off the hook). There right behind this magnificent structure was a Burger King or McDonalds or what ever it was with a line out the door consisting not of Italians but Americans. Have they ever heard of,”When in Rome?”
Why do we bleach our rice and our flour? Consistency. Why not sell these products in their natural form? Why do the majority of Americans buy wine based on the point system? Consistency. It’s ok to admit that this is where we are at. Because change is always inevitable (we’ll see how much this Green Movement will help us). But in the meantime there is a reason why Trader Joe’s Wine Shop is so popular. Good point Gabrio.

Once you make wine a product of technology, rather than nature, it will taste the same wherever it is made. Then it just becomes a matter of where is the cheapest labor to produce it

What biodynamic/organic/natural winemakers are striving for is a return to terroir. Wines that truly represent the region and soil they come from. I suggest everyone who is disatisfied with the current state of affairs start trying out these amazing wines.

“I fear oak products are being villanized by the wine press erranously, they are a valuable tool to winemakers.”

Yeah they might be a valuable tool to winemakers who need to cover their mistakes. If you grow your grapes with care and preferably with traditional organic or sustainable methods, the resulting wine will be better than anything that has been treated with “oak alternatives”. I just think its better to drink real wines than to manipulate your wines in the winery. I don’t know if most wine consumers care, but as soon as I open the bottle I know if I am about to drink a real wine or one made with alternatives. I find these wines fake-tasting, and the taste of the oak alternatives makes the wines start to blend into eachother. The best analogy I can think of is your own home-brewed single origin coffee vs. Dunkin Doughnuts vanilla flavored nasty blend coffee. I wish it were illegal to use these oak alternatives. Everybody should buy used barrels. Neutral oak is the only way to age right.

Yet more fake “wine” stuff. Old news, but you have a larger audience. I always tell my customers that the toasted sawmill waste (let’s call a spade a spade, here) is the least egregious practice used by industrial “wineries.” There are many others, and many are used by those who would prefer we think of their “products” as “artisan.”Here’s more on this subject